Apple Now Assembles 14% of iPhones in India

[MacRumors]

Apple now produces as much as 14% of its iPhones in India, indicating the company's accelerating efforts to diversify beyond China (via Bloomberg).

The figure accounts for $14 billion of assembled iPhones in the country, or about 1 in 7 of the company's flagship devices, a doubling of production compared to the last fiscal year. Models assembled in India include the iPhone 12 through to the latest iPhone 15, excluding premium Pro and Pro Max models.

Apple has been setting up ‌‌iPhone‌‌ manufacturing hubs in India ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi began promoting his "Made in India" initiative, which requires that 30% of products sold by foreign companies be manufactured or produced within the country.

The Indian government says the growth in manufacturing has created 150,000 direct jobs at Apple's suppliers. That's a boon for Modi's administration, which has enticed foreign companies like Apple with financial incentives to realize its ambition for the country to become a global manufacturing hub.

Foxconn assembled nearly 67% and Pegatron around 17% of iPhones in India in the fiscal year ending March 2024, according to Bloomberg's sources. The remaining devices were produced by Wistron.

While China remains Apple's largest iPhone assembly base and biggest overseas market, it is also where Apple's revenues have been plummeting, due to the meteoric rise of local vendors such as Huawei and a government ban on the use of iPhones in state workplaces.

Apple's diversification away from China hints at the company's growing awareness of rising geopolitical tensions and the need for supply chain resilience in the face of potential disruption. The pivot to India also likely takes into account its fast-growing smartphone market – last year Apple also opened its first two stores there, in Mumbai and the capital New Delhi.

Article Link: Apple Now Assembles 14% of iPhones in India

 

[omenatarhuri]

How about assemble in US or Europe?

 

[klasma]

I wonder which parts of an iPhone are those 14%.

 

[klasma]

How about assemble in US or Europe?

That would probably push pricing into the Vision Pro region.

 

[tomtad]

That would probably push pricing into the Vision Pro region.

Could be an interesting experiment. See if there's a market for patriots paying more

 

[CausticSoda]

I wonder which parts of an iPhone are those 14%.

I assume for the most part it means assemble, as it says, and not making the parts.

 

[unregbaron]

I hope the income is staying within India.

 

[StoneJack]

I hope the income is staying within India.

India is a large market and assembly in India is fitting well with Indian sentiments. Foxconn manages the assembly I believe

 

[klasma]

I assume for the most part it means assemble, as it says, and not making the parts.

But why just assemble 14% of an iPhone in India?

 

[Marbles1]

How about assemble in US or Europe?

I wonder how much it would actually add to the price if this happened. Wouldn't be in high cost locations, but lower cost for the region, but somewhere with technical staff, source of engineering graduates etc. in the same way that car production and high tech happens in Germany, parts of the US, parts of the UK etc.

Apple produces premium products. I'd pay a bit more (not sure how much) to know that my phone was at least made in a democracy. I'd love to buy an Indian iPhone. India's not perfect but it's a world away from China.

An iPhone with Assembled in Germany/Poland etc. would be great.

 

[DarthDon]

That would probably push pricing into the Vision Pro region.

Nope. Mass production is cheap. Especially if it's automated. Probably, however, the high stock profits of the shareholders would decrease, as it would probably be a bit more expensive...

 

[blastdoor]

How about assemble in US or Europe?

I agree that needs to happen but
maybe “North America” and Europe. So, Mexico and Poland.

The key is greater automation in production, but that’s what AI and robotics can help with.

Apple needs to produce the full supply of iPhones with maybe 1 percent of the current workforce.

 

[alexandr]

So is this 14% of iPhone 14s?

 

[CausticSoda]

But why just assemble 14% of an iPhone in India?

Assemble 14% of iPhones (plural). So if they produce 100 iPhones, 14 of those iPhones are assembled (completely) in India. At least presumably that is what it means?

 

[DelayedGratificationGene]

1 out of 7 iPhones produced in India.

 

[arkitect]

But why just assemble 14% of an iPhone in India?

You're working too hard at this joke. 🙂

Assemble 14% of iPhones (plural). So if they produce 100 iPhones, 14 of those iPhones are assembled (completely) in India. At least presumably that is what it means?

Correct.

 

[cuiver]

The issue here is production of the parts themselves. Assembly can effectively occur anywhere, since labor is available pretty much everywhere, being increasingly more automated by the year. Apple collaborates with 3rd parties to develop and produce the parts, being Sony for the camera modules, NXP for the accelerometer, BOE/Samsung for the OLED panel, etc, almost if not all produce their parts in Asia. That effectively limits the viability of being build in America or Europe.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

That would probably push pricing into the Vision Pro region.

That's not true:

Shareholders could easily just take a little cut and end prices would be the same for consumers. No huge losses.

But obviously, no corporation opts for decent working conditions and fair wages if the cost comes out of their pockets.

These are people cutting costs to increase profits by single cents and less.

And it's also not like anyone's getting fined proportionally to the numbers of workers they exploit in developing countries.

So why care? Neither corporations or consumers do.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

I agree that needs to happen but
maybe “North America” and Europe. So, Mexico and Poland.

The key is greater automation in production, but that’s what AI and robotics can help with.

Apple needs to produce the full supply of iPhones with maybe 1 percent of the current workforce.

More automation and AI won't result in lower prices for the end-consumer or more jobs anywhere in the World. Just more profit for Apple and nothing else.

Are you a shareholder?

 

[klasma]

You're working too hard at this joke. 🙂

Sorry, I’m not very creative today.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

14% of iPhones made in India walk into a bar...

or

Waiter, there's 14% of an iPhone in my soup...

 

[Tito360]

I wonder which parts of an iPhone are those 14%.

I’ll say just the switches lol

 

[0827773]

Thats good. I just picked up a iPhone 13 the other day here in Norway and it was assembled in India.

 

[bradman83]

I wonder how much it would actually add to the price if this happened. Wouldn't be in high cost locations, but lower cost for the region, but somewhere with technical staff, source of engineering graduates etc. in the same way that car production and high tech happens in Germany, parts of the US, parts of the UK etc.

Apple produces premium products. I'd pay a bit more (not sure how much) to know that my phone was at least made in a democracy. I'd love to buy an Indian iPhone. India's not perfect but it's a world away from China.

An iPhone with Assembled in Germany/Poland etc. would be great.

The challenge is less the actual labor costs as it is the support infrastructure. Steve Jobs spoke on this before his death when asked by former US President Barack Obama what it would take to move iPhone production to the US; he essentially said it would never happen for several reasons:

• Foxconn employs hundreds of thousands of workers and houses them in dormitories on site. That gives those companies the ability to ramp up and ramp down production at a moment's notice; workers deal with conditions most US and EU laborers would consider extremely difficult. The company literally owns you. But the end result is a level of speed and flexibility US and EU factories would have difficulty matching.
• China/East Asia is very good at churning out associate-level engineers who are needed to help overcome manufacturing and design challenges. Jobs noted that Apple needed 30,000 industrial engineers to support the factories at the time and that Apple would never be able to hire at that level in the US without major changes to our education system and a concerted push of people into STEM fields.
• China/East Asia has built up a huge supply chain whereby the majority of the components that go into an iPhone are produced in the same general area, reducing shipping costs. (Corning's various Gorilla Glass and its variants are one of the few US-sourced components that get sent to China for processing).

 

[Qubelek]

Oh no… again scratched phones out of the box ? No thanks. I prefer China.